


That’s Got To Be A New One

by Bored_Trekkie



Series: Just a Little Push [2]
Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Julian has supportive friends, M/M, Pining, Post-Episode: s05e22 Children of Time
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-14 03:55:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28539195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bored_Trekkie/pseuds/Bored_Trekkie
Summary: Julian needs a bit of support after "Children of Time"
Relationships: Julian Bashir & Jadzia Dax, Julian Bashir & Kira Nerys, Julian Bashir/Elim Garak
Series: Just a Little Push [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2090742
Comments: 8
Kudos: 29





	1. Docking and Acceptance

**Author's Note:**

> Turns out my brain wrote a series! It can be read without the last work and still make sense but it is meant to be read in order.  
> No beta, all mistakes are mine

As soon as the Defiant reached DS9, Julian pulled Kira towards the infirmary. He barely had time to notice the crowd around the airlock, most of them family waiting to greet those coming back, before he pushed through. 

“Hey, hey! I still have a few weeks according to Yedrin, what’s the hurry?”

“I’d rather not risk the degeneration worsening, Major, and it won’t take too long!”

“Fine, but we don’t need to run,” Kira sighed. 

Blushing, Julian slowed his pace and the two continued down the promenade in comfortable silence. It seemed empty for the time of day, but he could hear the normal rush in Quarks as they passed by. It must be later than he’d thought. The man glanced towards Garak’s Clothiers stealthily, or what he thought was stealthily, seeing the lights on and smiling to himself. Stifling a chuckle, Kira entered the infirmary two steps ahead of him, causing him to look at her, shook from his thoughts.

“What?” 

“Oh, it's nothing,” she deflected, “how long did you say this’ll take?” 

“I’ll need to take another scan of your brain, to see how far along the degeneration is,” Julian led Kira to the nearest biobed, slipping into doctor mode, “then I’ll perform the neural pathway induction, but it won’t take more than a few hours. Not even that, if we’re lucky.” 

He waved the on-duty nurse over and started explaining the situation as Kira waited patiently. They set up the equipment and the Major soon grew bored of watching the ceiling and not moving (it would disrupt the machine, Julian would remind her) while she waited. She could see Julian and his nurses flitting around her, checking the machine’s progress and chart readouts. After what seemed like forever and yet no time at all, the machine turned off and Julian appeared above her with a tricorder.

“Can I move now?” 

“Yes, yes,” Julian was distracted by the tricorder readings, “No complications from what I can tell, but I want to see you back here if you have a headache, dizziness, nausea, or anything out of the ordinary.”

“Of course, Julian,” Kira sat up, stretching her stiff limbs, “you’ll be the first to know.”

Kira got to the Infirmary doors before she stopped and looked back. The doctor was intently typing away at a padd and she smiled before clearing her throat loudly. He jumped and looked at her. 

“Just wanted to make sure you know that debriefing is tomorrow at 0800 hours and that we’ve all got the rest of the day off, thanks to Sisko.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he smiled, “I just need to finish a few things up then I’ll go.”

Kira nodded and was about to walk out when she paused, looking at the tailor’s shop across the promenade. She smiled and looked back.

“Oh, and Julian?” he hummed in acknowledgement, “You might want to take that time and see if Garak wants to have lunch, seeing as you missed your usual date.”

Julian’s jaw dropped. Was he _that_ obvious? But noticing the mirth in the Major’s eyes, he smiled, recognizing it as acceptance. 

“Yes, sir!” He gave Kira a jaunty salute before chuckling and getting sucked back into his padd, already typing. By the time he resurfaced, the Major was long gone and the nurses were changing shifts. Putting his padd down on his desk, Julian began towards his quarters, sighing when he saw the lights off in Garak’s. He must not have had a busy day, as he was usually still working at this time, despite it being after-hours. Oh, well, there was always tomorrow.

Back in his quarters, he groaned at the feel of his bed. Chuckling, the doctor remembered how much he used to hate the Cardassian mattresses. His exhaustion from the mission catching up to him, he was asleep in minutes. In his last coherent thought, Julian promised himself that he’d ask Garak to lunch after the meeting.


	2. A Meeting and a Push

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jadzia can't help herself and tries to play matchmaker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, no beta, but I'm happier with the flow of this chapter compared to the last one

Debriefing was long, hard, and boring. Julian found it difficult to go over the events of the mission and could tell the others felt the same. His only reprieve was knowing looks from both Kira and Jadzia. He should have known the Trill would know, especially if _Kira_ already knew. Luckily for the young doctor, Miles seemed to be satisfied in his attempt at meddling and appeared to be resolutely ignoring the situation. 

Jadzia sidled up to his chair immediately after their dismissal, wiggling her eyebrows and smirking. 

“So,” She drew out the word while looking him up and down, “you gonna ask Garak to lunch today?”

Julian blushed, looking around at the few stragglers a short distance away from them. 

“I was… planning on it…” He nervously ran his hand through his hair as they passed through the doorway. 

Jadzia’s squeal of excitement startled him and he stumbled over his own feet. Righting himself, the bewildered doctor looked at the Trill. 

“Oh come on, Julian!” She shook his shoulders, grinning ear-to-ear, “You two have been pining for each other for years! I thought I was going to have to lock you two in a closet soon!”

Blanching at the thought of Garak being stuck in a small space, he hurried after his friend.

“That won’t be necessary!”

“Well, just to make sure,” She stopped and leaned toward the younger man conspiratorially, “I’ll walk you there!”

She skipped away gleefully, resuming her quick pace towards the Promenade while Julian scrambled to follow.

He stopped just out of sight from the tailor’s shop, grabbing the Trill’s arm. She looked at him, noticing his barely-concealed panic, and pulled him into a one-armed hug, using the other to ruffle his hair. 

“What are you waiting for? You’ve been having lunch with him for years now! He won’t say no!”

“But what if I ruin our friendship? He doesn’t have anyone else except maybe Odo and…”

“And?” She pulled away slightly, searching his downcast eyes.

“And I don’t know what I would do if I lost him…” 

“Oh Julian…” Jadzia pulled the younger doctor into a proper hug, tucking his head under her own.

“I highly doubt he’ll say no, especially not to lunch!” She shushed him as he opened his mouth to say something and continued, smirking, “And in the unlikely chance that I’m wrong, you have me and Miles to help you through it. I also bet we could set Kira on him if you wanted.”

“She wouldn’t take much convincing,” Julian laughed into her shoulder. Jadzia could feel the tension fall from his shoulders.

The doctor untangled himself from the embrace a minute later, looking at the storefront as though it would bite.

“So, I guess I should do it before I lose my nerve again,” He chuckled, making no move towards the Cardassian he knew was in there.

Knowing that, if left to his own devices, her friend would stand there for a few minutes then go to either Quark’s or his quarters, Jadzia made a decision. She grinned mischievously, grabbing his arm and dragging him over to the store. The Trill pushed him through the door, making the bell swing wildly, and quickly retreated, hoping the young man wouldn’t mince his words _too_ badly.


	3. Tailor Shop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Julian asks Garak to lunch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aha! School has been kicking my ass, but I finally got this finished! I can't make any promises, but I'll try to get back to updating this more regularly :)

Garak was pleasantly surprised when he looked up from his embroidering to see Julian stumble into his store. He had not expected to see the doctor before their weekly lunch, although the Defiant had been gone longer than expected. 

“Ah, my dear Doctor!” He carefully put his work down, focusing all his attention to his disheveled friend, “Welcome back. I trust your, ah, trip went well?”

Blushing as he tried to regain his composure, Julian stuttered out, “Yes, yes, it was, uh, fine. Glad to be back, though.”

“Now, I doubt you’ve managed to find yourself in need of my services so quickly. Unless, of course, Starfleet is finally doing something about those dreadful uniforms,” Garak eyed his friend up and down judgmentally, “So tell me, what brings you to my humble shop?” 

Julian smiled at the Cardassian’s banter, the normality calming his nerves more than any reassurance. He moved closer to the work table, partially to be closer to his friend and partially to see what he had been working on. He always enjoyed seeing Garak’s work, the man was truly a good tailor and even Julian, fashion challenged as he was, could tell.

“Well, my dear Mr Garak,” he said cheekily, “since I had to miss our lunch and have the entire day off, courtesy of Captain Sisko, I wondered if we could reschedule it for today?”

“I would be delighted. And I expect to hear about what attracted the attentions of the Defiant, so long as you can tell me, of course.”

Bouncing a bit on his heels, Julian’s smile threatened to take over his whole face.

“I’m sure you’ll be thoroughly entertained,” he chuckled.

“I look forward to it,” The tailor smiled back at him, picking up his work where he left off.

“Well I’ll… see you at lunch then,” He cursed inwardly at his awkwardness.

Nodding amicably back at him, Garak agreed, “I'll see you then, Doctor.”

Back out on the Promenade, Julian found himself at a loss for how to spend the next few hours. He wasn’t tired, at least not enough to go back to bed, and all his other friends had their own plans. Lost in thought, he looked up in just enough time to stop himself from running into a door, finding himself back at his quarters. 

“Well, since I’m already here…”

Looking around, he retrieved his small bag from where he’d thrown it the night before, unpacking and running his spare uniforms through the sonic. 

Slumping down on the couch, Julian checked the time on the nearest padd. He still had an hour to spare. Too long to just wait it out and too short to do anything substantial. He glanced down at the padd and did a double-take. It was loaded with the last book of poetry Garak had given him. They had talked about the poems Garak had steered him towards, but there were a few left to read. He settled more comfortably on the couch, opening the next chunk of the anthology. 

Sitting up 45 minutes later, Julian had just enough time to change into civilian clothes before meeting Garak. Looking through his closet, he found a rich blue tunic that the tailor had gifted him for his last birthday. He smiled, pulling the soft garment on. Unsurprisingly, it was his best shirt. 

Julian admired himself in the mirror, already more confident. Shaking his head, he made his way to the door, ready to meet his friend and, hopefully, make him more.


End file.
